Recent reviews by Fuzedude

Mystery of the Seven Keys is a modern take on a classic formula that has shown that Nancy can keep up with the video game trends. It's like they saw what could be improved from Midnight in Salem (the lack of puzzle difficulty, the clunky movement, the simplistic art details), and have improved upon all those things. The puzzles have been upped in difficulty (could use a little more clearer instructions for a few), the free roam makes it so much easier to get around and navigate the map (I personally like it over all the clicking the arrows to move), and there's so much detail put into all the important set pieces. The game does take a little bit of time to establish all the characters, and it can feel like sometimes you're missing one particular game trigger to move the story to the next scene (though all Nancy games are like this). But, when it comes to classic Nancy shenanigans and story telling, this one's just as good as the classics. If you're the type of person who likes Nancy games, this one should fit in quite nicely in the collection. If this is your first Nancy game, come in with the understanding that they've just got their footing when it comes to 3D exploration and environments, but the mystery and puzzles are up to par.

This is a fun, if bare-bones, rogue-lite with very surface level RPG elements. The main game play mechanic of drafting dice for stats makes each encounter a mini-puzzle in itself, with aspects of risk management when you consider using items, equipment, or gold during a dungeon run.

Story mode is shorter than expected, taking around 10-15 hours to complete, based on your luck. While I expected an adventure with a party of heroes, the story is more like 4 separate mini-adventures that happen to come together in the final act. This makes the story feel disconnected, even though the inventory, gold, and town upgrades are all shared between the 4 characters. The RPG elements of raising stats, collecting items, or "building" a character are extremely limited, if not non-existent. I imagine this coincides with the short length of the game, as by the time I was at the final boss, I had thought that I had reached the end of Act 1 in any other long form RPG.

The challenge dungeons act as the game's rogue-like portion of the game. I find them to be extremely luck based and frustrating to play, but that's why they're called the "challenge dungeons".

What this game excels in is charm and style. Each of the characters has a vibrant personality that shows in the dialog and in their animations. The story is basic, but effective in getting me invested in the characters and world-building that is being attempted in the "Rivals Universe". The music is good, and the art style is fun and cartoony. Each of the characters play similarly, but have enough differences between them to provide some variety and replay-ability.

The biggest problem of the game, is that it left me wanting more. There's elements here that are engaging, but I feel like there was ambition in this game that ended up getting cut short. That being said, for 15 dollars, what short experience I did have with it, was worth it.